A puzzle: why would the MIDDLE part of a series have 5 times more views than any of the others?

[malsagulo]

So here's a puzzle for all of you: I just logged into my account for the first time in a while and discovered that one of my stories -- Emilia's Exorcism Part 4 -- has over 72,000 views. Pretty decent, right? But here's the thing: that story is part of the series, and none of the other parts have anywhere close to that number of views. Part 1 has the second most at 14.4k. Parts 2 and 3 are above 11k views. Part 5 has 8.3k views; and Parts 6, 7, and 8 have between 5k to 6k views.

How should I make sense of these numbers? Why would the middle part of a series have such a disproportionate number of views compared to the rest? What does it have that the rest don't?

And before anyone asks, no, the Favorites and the ratings don't follow the same pattern at all. Part 4 has been favorited by 1 user and has a rating of 4.19 from 26 users. It is not the highest rated part of the series (that being Part 6, rated at 4.6 by 10 users), nor is it the part with the most reviews (compared to Part 1, rated 4.29 by 55 users.)

So what's going on here? Anyone have any ideas?

 

[StillStunned]

I'd say it might depend on how high it showed up on the New Stories list. I'm pretty sure that the first 3-5 stories on each category page get many times more views than the day's other new stories.

But in SF/F? Those are just bizarre numbers. My most viewed story in that category has a little over 5k views. I have a 5-part series that has a total of 8.5k views. Another story has fewer than 1k views after nearly two months.

So if you ever figure out what happened, please share!

 

[ElectricBlue]

So what's going on here? Anyone have any ideas?

See my comment in your other thread.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Are there like really juicy boobs in the middle part?

 

[SimonDoom]

What was the pattern of receiving views? Has this chapter received more views than the others on a daily basis since publishing, or did it suddenly get them some time after publication?

 

[malsagulo]

I'm not sure. I am fairly certain that the numbers didn't look like this the last time I checked, which must've been a year or two ago. So the big jump in views must've happened fairly recently for some reason.

Here's the full stats for the entire series as they currently appear in the control panel:

Part 1, published 02/14/2019:
Views 14.4k
Favorites 12
Votes 4.29 / 55

Part 2, published 02/16/2019:
Views 11.6k
Favorites 2
Votes 4.16 / 32

Part 3, published 02/19/2019:
Views 11.2k
Favorites 1
Votes 4.36 / 25

Part 4, published 02/21/2019:
Views 72.4k
Favorites 2
Votes 4.19 / 26

Part 5, published 02/22/2019:
Views 8.3k
Favorites 2
Votes 4.47 / 17

Part 6, published 02/23/2019:
Views 6k
Favorites 1
Votes 4.6 / 10

Part 7, published 02/24/2019:
Views 5.3k
Favorites 2
Votes 4.54 / 13

Part 8, published 02/25/2019:
Views 5.3k
Favorites 2
Votes 4.36 / 11

 

[malsagulo]

Are there like really juicy boobs in the middle part?

Not any moreso than the other parts, as far as I know? Feel free to take a look for yourself.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Part 4, published 02/21/2019:
Views 72.4k
Favorites 2
Votes 4.19 / 26

I reckon those Views are a crawler caught in a loop. The rest of the data is consistent with the other chapters, with a typical downhill slide as the story progresses

If the Views were genuine, I reckon your Faves and Votes would also be proportionally higher.

 

[SimonDoom]

I agree with ElectricBlue. This probably has nothing to do with the story itself. It's probably the result of some sort of automated process or bot that's triggering a massive view count very suddenly. I have had this happen twice to me and to my stories, but the results were not quite so dramatic. In a story that was over a year old, getting under 100 views per day, one of the chapters suddenly received over 10,000 views. Something like that is probably what's going on here.

 

[malsagulo]

I reckon those Views are a crawler caught in a loop. The rest of the data is consistent with the other chapters, with a typical downhill slide as the story progresses

If the Views were genuine, I reckon your Faves and Votes would also be proportionally higher.

I agree. That seems to be the most logical explanation. I just can't fathom why a search crawler would wind up stuck on or drawn to that part in particular, though.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I agree. That seems to be the most logical explanation. I just can't fathom why a search crawler would wind up stuck on or drawn to that part in particular, though.

It's happened before. Not often, but other writers have reported similar anomalies, with no "human" patterns of behaviour going on.

 

[malsagulo]

It's happened before. Not often, but other writers have reported similar anomalies, with no "human" patterns of behaviour going on.

Have the site owners or admins said anything about it? Do they have any way to track these things in a more granular way than what we have access to in the control panel?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Have the site owners or admins said anything about it? Do they have any way to track these things in a more granular way than what we have access to in the control panel?

Too far down in the noise to worry about, I reckon. As I say, it's a rare occurrence.

You go could ask Laurel to go take a look. PM her with a link to the story and she could quiz the data.

 

[SimonDoom]

Have the site owners or admins said anything about it? Do they have any way to track these things in a more granular way than what we have access to in the control panel?

I doubt they would care much. Although it affects view totals, it doesn't change votes or scores in any way; you can tell that by looking at your results. I found the same thing when it happened to me.

 

[Rob_Royale]

The only thing that pops to mind is maybe that part has a very popular tag that the others don't?

 

[Lifestyle66]

There are only a few things which catch the readers' attention to cause them to click on a story:
The Title and Description are the first two, which needs to grab them!

Tags, position on the New list, and day of the week it publishes randomly gather more views, but not significantly to make such a huge difference in views. Comments left by others can add some views from those who watch the category page.

But looking at those first two (title and description) of your series stories has one thing which jumps out at me for Part 4: "Strip Club". The lower rating for that one merely suggests the description caught their attention for the views, but you received more lower ratings from disappointed readers.

And since the series posted years ago, the ratings have gone through numerous "scrubs" where the Admins remove 1's and a few 5's they consider outliers from the same users bombing it.

 

[malsagulo]

Too far down in the noise to worry about, I reckon. As I say, it's a rare occurrence.

You go could ask Laurel to go take a look. PM her with a link to the story and she could quiz the data.

Who's Laurel?

 

[SimonDoom]

Who's Laurel?

Laurel owns and runs Literotica, along with Manu.

 

[12oclocktales]

Several possibilities come to mind:

--Someone really loved Part 4 and just had to re-read it 60,000 times. The rest of us should be half so lucky.
-- Multiple power failures occurred the day several people were making their way through Part 4 and had to re-enter the story, indicating an additional view each time. Check to see if any hurricanes were occurring or if there was a major tornado outbreak at the time.
-- Someone with Parkinson’s got onto it and inadvertently clicked 60,000 times before being able to stop. (I know this is impossible, is probably even offensive to some, but there’s a joke circulating on the site about Parkinson’s and hand jobs that’s pretty good, and I couldn’t resist.)
-- You had a secret admirer who was trying to give you subtle hints about their feelings toward you by opening Part 4 again and again. When it didn’t work the views ended.

 

[malsagulo]

Laurel owns and runs Literotica, along with Manu.

Cool. Where can I find her?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Cool. Where can I find her?

Send her a PM, envelope icon, top right of this page. Start a new conversation.

 

[SimonDoom]

Cool. Where can I find her?

Navigate to the Author's Hangout forum.

Look at the blue highlighted threads at the top of the list of threads. You will see several that were started by Laurel, and one by Manu. From there you can see how to start a conversation with them.

 

[StillStunned]

I thought the usual procedure was to chant "AI, AI, AI" until she materialises? it might also involve 10cc of mouse blood.

 

[malsagulo]

Navigate to the Author's Hangout forum.

Look at the blue highlighted threads at the top of the list of threads. You will see several that were started by Laurel, and one by Manu. From there you can see how to start a conversation with them.

Done. I'll let all of you know if I hear anything back from her.

 

[colddiesel]

Mebbe, 72,000 should be 7,200, An extra 0 in error?